Toughen license standards to save young drivers' lives

Traffic accidents are the leading killer of teenagers in the United
States, and the newest drivers - 16-year-olds - tend to be at the
greatest risk, over three times that of drivers their parents' age.

In 2004, according to government figures, 16-year-old drivers were
involved in 957 fatal accidents that killed 1,111 people - 399 of them
16-year-old drivers and, sadly, 385 of their 16-year-old
passengers.

A new study by public-health researchers at Johns Hopkins shows that
there is an effective way of reducing these deaths - graduated driver
licensing, a series of restrictions on a new driver that are gradually
lifted as the teenager gains experience. They studied seven basic
restrictions that have been imposed to one degree or another in 36
states, and not at all in seven states.

According to the researchers, imposing six or all seven of the
restrictions reduced deaths by 21 percent; imposing five of the
restrictions reduced deaths by 18 percent; and imposing even one of the
restrictions resulted in a 4 percent reduction.

Even allowing for adolescent impatience, the conditions are not
particularly onerous: a minimum age of 15-1/2 for obtaining a learner's
permit; a three-month wait after getting a learner's permit to apply
for an intermediate license; at least 30 hours of supervised driving; a
minimum age of 16 to get an intermediate license and 17 for a full
license; and restrictions on night driving and carrying passengers.

The states without these restrictions are moving toward adopting
them, but as Nicole Nason, the government's top traffic-safety
official, points out, there's nothing stopping parents from imposing
them on their own.